The Bull Draw fire burning near the small town of Nucla in southwestern Colorado continues to be the largest and least contained fire burning in the state.

It’s burned about 27,000 acres and has grown about 1,000 since Wednesday, making it the 17th largest fire in state history.

Five of Colorado’s 20 largest fires ignited this season, but the Bull Draw is different from the Spring, High Chateau or Lake Christine fires in that it was caused by lightning. The others were caused by a person.

Officials expect the Bull Draw fire will continue to grow to the north and the east Thursday, and a 17-mile section of Divide Road remains closed.

There are 12 wildfires burning in Colorado, but half of them are more than 90 percent contained.

Federal firefighters continued to lose ground on the Cabin Lake fire as “extreme fire behavior” pushed embers past established fire lines — doubling the size of the fire and dropping containment from 72 to 29 percent.

The Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation Wednesday an area known as the South Fork drainage. It runs along County Road 10 south from the County Road 17 and County Road 10 intersection.

The Cache Creek fire, about eight miles southwest of Rifle, is about 2,500 acres in size and 40 percent contained.

Officials are optimistic, saying in a statement that “crews took advantage of cloudy skies and higher humidity to build new containment lines” in recent days.

They plan to continue to secure slopes in the northern and western portions of the fire Thursday.

Officials plan to hold a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Grand Valley Fire Protection District Station No. 1 in Parachute.

Wildfires in Colorado and the U.S.

The map shows active wildfire locations and all 2018 fire perimeters*. The map defaults to Colorado; to see all wildfires, click “U.S.” in the view area. Click the map layers icon in the top right corner of the map to change map backgrounds and to toggle active and contained fires, and perimeters. Click a marker or perimeter for details. To view the full map and a table of all 2018 wildfires, click here.

*Data comes from two sources, GeoMAC and InciWeb, and could contain inconsistencies. Map by Kevin Hamm and Daniel J. Schneider.

Anna Staver covers politics for The Denver Post. She's spent her career writing in statehouses, courthouses and even a few fair board meetings. She and her husband fell in love with the West a decade ago and have called Oregon, Idaho and Nevada home.

The public is invited to a meeting in Rifle on Tuesday to learn more about a slowly growing wildfire last measured at 250 acres 10 miles south of Rifle, according to a Friday news release from the Upper Colorado River Fire and Aviation Management Unit.